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Here Comes the Sun. And Freshwater.

WaterFX is harnessing clean energy to provide fresh drinking water virtually anywhere, even in the midst of drought

WaterFX
can turn virtually any water source into clean, drinkable water. And all they
need is a sunny day.

This
is great news for drought-stricken states like California and Texas, where water
is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. In Central California, for
example, the drought has essentially cut off thousands of farmers this year;
they have no water, and their land now lays fallow.

Part
of what’s draining this precious resource is our energy use. Taking into
account the acquisition, treatment, and movement required to ensure water comes
out the faucet when we turn it on, it is no surprise that water is among the
country’s greatest users of
electricity.

“Energy
and water go hand-in-hand, yet we don’t fully understand our holistic
energy-water footprint.” said Vice President of EDF’s Climate and Energy
Program, Jim Marston.
“If we start thinking about clean energy and water together, we can
quickly advance a sustainable future for both of these vital resources, uncover
joint cost-savings, and provide people dependability during the driest, most drought-stricken
of times.”

A
company called WaterFX is addressing both our energy and water woes through its
unique water treatment system that can generate fresh water from virtually any water source. It runs essentially fossil fuel-free
and can be installed just about anywhere. Best of all, its founder wants
everyone to copy his innovation, free of charge.

Credit: WaterFX

“Our
approach is worth copying,” said WaterFX founder and chairman, Aaron Mandell.
“The technology that our company is built upon is one that can be replicated
anywhere, by anyone, and that could be a game changer for arid regions around
the world. It is a vaccine for water scarcity.”

The
company calls its Aqua4 system an “engineered aquifer.” It uses concentrated
solar still (CSS) technology to evaporate and distill water from any treatable
source - from seawater to agricultural discharge – by removing salt and other
impurities as an on-site fresh water solution. The system can also store and
recycle the excess heat energy it generates, enabling the CSS to run 24/7. Only
during prolonged cloudy stretches would the system need to rely on other fuel
sources.

“We
can provide a turnkey water solution for cities, agricultural districts, and
other large-scale water customers that offers long-term cost predictability
without requiring them to bear all the upfront costs of new technology,”
Mandell said. “They’ll
buy our water just like they would from any other provider. It’s the Solar City
model for water – why own the solar equipment when you can just get lower cost
water.” The comparison to Solar City is quite intriguing when you consider that
net metering of solar energy now enables electric meters to run in reverse,
putting excess power back on the grid. The same principles can apply to water.

Credit: WaterFX

Mandell
says one Aqua4 module can generate 65,000 gallons of freshwater a day from
wastewater, drainage water, runoff, saline groundwater, industrial process
water, or seawater. Because the system is modular, it is easily scalable.
Double the modules on-site and you double the freshwater output.

Aqua4
is being put to the test in Central California’s agricultural region, where a
scaled-down module is turning 14,000 gallons of agricultural discharge into
fresh drinking water each day. That water can then be returned to rivers or
recycled back into the agricultural or municipal water supply.

Perhaps
the most remarkable aspect of the company is its open source approach. It sees
its growth in the service industry as a water provider, owning and running the
systems on-site and simply selling the reclaimed water to the buyer. So it’s not patenting its innovations.

Mandell
sees a significant advantage to the open source approach. “Technology is an
important part of what we’re
doing, but not the only part,” he said. “There are countless smart people
around the world that will make this technology even better. And when they do,
our service will become stronger and everyone will benefit.”

Innovation highlights

What: Developed by WaterFX, the Aqua4 water treatment system can produce freshwater from virtually any treatable water source. The company’s open source approach encourages others to build upon its technology.

Where: WaterFX is located in Sonoma County, CA

Why it matters: Water is becoming scarcer and growing cities continue to face shortages. WaterFX’s solution provides a clean energy water treatment solution that works virtually anywhere.